Canterbury Park and Ride
Publication date: 08-03-2010
The Story so far…
Canterbury already has three park and ride sites which provide some 1,800 parking spaces. But not content with that, the City Council wants to provide 600 more spaces on a fourth site to serve the A2 north-western approach.
The Council sees park and ride as an essential part of its transport strategy for the city, which it considers will help to reduce traffic congestion; improve travel choice; improve road safety; and reduce travel demand. We, though, believe that park and ride is not the answer to reducing urban congestion, and there is no evidence to suggest that the existing park and ride sites in Canterbury have reduced city centre congestion. Park and ride encourages people to drive to the edge of towns (often at the expense of rural public transport) and tends to take up large quantities of green land. Click here for more information on CPRE’s general concerns about park and ride.
The campaign against additional park and ride at Canterbury has taken a number of twists and turns over the last four years. In its 2006 Local Plan the City Council identified a site at Hall Place in Harbledown, but this was subsequently rejected by the Council when consultants WSP concluded it was unsuitable. However, WSP searched for an alternative site in Harbledown and recommended to the Council a site off Faulkners Lane. This was duly accepted by the Council as its preferred site in October 2007, and began work on preparing a planning application.
The Faulkners Lane site comprises grade 1 agricultural land, currently a pear orchard, and it falls within a designated Area of High Landscape Value. There is no direct access from the A2 and all traffic would have to travel along Faulkners Lane, a narrow winding lane which passes directly by a busy junior school. A previous planning application for a golf driving range on the site was refused by the City Council on the grounds of unacceptable traffic generation.
In response Harbledown and Rough Common Parish Council set up a campaign group to oppose the Council’s plans, and Protect Kent continues to work closely with them.
The selection of the Faulkners Lane site as the Council’s preferred location coincided with work it was doing to prepare a master plan for the comprehensive redevelopment of the Wincheap Industrial Estate, located just a minute or so further along the A2. This massive brownfield redevelopment site, almost entirely in the Council’s ownership, would see the provision of new north facing slip roads onto the A2. The redevelopment would also involve the re-configuration of one of the existing park and ride sites. To Protect Kent and the Parish Council campaign group it seemed entirely illogical for the Council to promote the destruction of high quality countryside when additional provision, if it is really needed, could be made as part of this major redevelopment on land already owned by the Council and where direct access onto the A2 will be available.
In early 2008 the Council consulted on the draft master plan for Wincheap, and in response to strong representations and lobbying by Protect Kent and the Parish Council the City Council finally (albeit reluctantly and after receiving legal advice) agreed to consider the possibility of an expansion of the existing Wincheap site as an alternative to a new site at Harbledown.
WSP were appointed again by the Council in late 2008 to investigate a Wincheap option and concluded that it was a viable and good proposition. As a result the Council accepted in June 2008 that expansion of park and ride at Wincheap was a serious option. However, they still declined to rule out the possibility of a new site at Faulkners Lane, which remained their preferred location. But the threat of a planning application was withdrawn with the Council deciding to pursue the matter through its Core Strategy for the Local Development Framework instead.
This was a significant victory, as it now means that the Council will have to fully justify to an independent planning inspector the need for additional park and ride and demonstrate how it will actually address congestion in the city centre. It will also have to show what other alternatives it has examined to address city centre congestion. There is growing evidence from other historic towns and cities that park and ride is not the answer (for example see the results of a study undertaken by consultants RPS Planning and Development).
The saga goes on….
In early 2010, after a long delay, the Council finally consulted on the issues and options for its Core Strategy to address. As expected the issue of more park and ride was included. Four options were presented for comment – the Faulkners Lane site; expansion of the existing park and ride site at Wincheap; another greenfield site at Cockering Farm (an area of countryside south of the A2 which the Council is considering as a large urban extension); and no new site.
In its response, CPRE Protect Kent strongly argued that the option of no new site should be selected because the Council has not justified the need for a site and has not demonstrated that it will actually relieve congestion in the city centre.
We wait to see where the Council goes from here. The next stage (preferred options) of the Core Strategy is expected in August 2010 with the final Core Strategy not due to be published until August 2011. This will be followed by an Examination in Public in April 2012.
If nothing else, at least the prospect of more Park and Ride at Canterbury is now a more distant prospect.
Attachments:
- cpre kent comments wincheap development brief.doc
- File Size: 94 K
- Last Modified: 29 February 2008 12:21 pm